August 2006: Summertime – Isole di Brissago

Brissago is famous for its islands, which seen from above look like bright green spots in the blue of the lake. Between 1885 and 1928 Baroness Antonietta Saint-Léger, a Russian of German origin, planted a botanical garden designed as an earthly paradise, and her successor, the department store king Max Emden, continued her work.
Today the neo-classical villa contains a restaurant and the administration offices of the Botanical Park of Canton Ticino. Their plants are still there, together with the Himalayan cinnamon with its scent of camphor, the Madagascar gladiolus, the bald cypress from the swamps of North America with its trunk under water, and numerous other exotic species.
By the way, let me introduce you the dog: This is Charlie